12,000 More Troops Headed to Iraq

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The Pentagon announced yesterday that the American military presence in Iraq "will grow by nearly 12,000 troops by next month, to 150,000, the highest level since the invasion last year." The increase primarily will be achieved by ordering about 10,400 soldiers and marines already in Iraq to extend their tours of duty, even as their replacements arrive. In some cases, this will be the second extension of service for the soldiers; many soldiers now will be in Iraq for 14 months, longer than "the year-long mission most service members are told to expect."  The Washington Post points out that "adding troops at this point is the opposite of what senior Pentagon officials expected when the war began in March 2003." The original plan, predicated on the wishful thinking that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators,  called for troop levels to be as low as 50,000 by the end of 2003. American Progress's Larry Korb, assistant secretary of defense for manpower in the Reagan administration, "said the tour extensions could come back to haunt the Army when soldiers in the affected units have to decide whether to re-enlist.  'This is the worst way to do it [increase the force], because by not putting enough troops in there and extending the people who are already there, you really demoralize people, particularly around the holidays,' Mr. Korb said."  The extensions show "the Army's too small and you didn't put enough troops in there in the first place," he added. [more] and [more]
  • Pictured above: The casket of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel is lowered into a grave by a Marine honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC, December 2, 2004. The U.S. Marine Corps said on Thursday it will again disclose the deaths of Marines as they occur in Iraq reversing a policy that has made it difficult to track American casualties and the lethality of the insurgency
  • U.S. troops include plenty of gray heads [more]
  • Iraq's civilian dead get no hearing in the United States [more]